The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Gardenia plant, botanically known as Gardenia augusta and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Starlight’.
The new Gardenia plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Kulnura, New South Wales, Australia. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new compact and freely branching Gardenia plants with attractive flowers.
The new Gardenia plant originated from an open-pollination in December, 2007 in Kulnura, New South Wales, Australia of Gardenia augusta ‘Radicans’, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unknown selection of Gardenia augusta as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Gardenia plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant within the progeny of the stated open-pollination in a controlled environment in Kulnura, New South Wales, Australia in 2010.
Asexual reproduction of the new Gardenia plant by vegetative cuttings in a controlled greenhouse environment in Kulnura, New South Wales, Australia since 2010 has shown that the unique features of this new Gardenia plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.